English Entertainment
Zee Café has ‘All Eyes on New’ with a spectacular line-up of shows
MUMBAI: Drama, laughter, secrets and revelations…Zee Café, one of India’s leading general English entertainment channels, has it all as it is leaving no stone unturned to make the month of April an exciting one for its audience. With a spectacular content line-up all through the month, the channel brings an interesting bouquet of shows comprising of fiction and reality, that the audience just cannot miss!
Scandal– Season 7 (Finale) – Starting April 4, 10pm
What will Olivia Pope do now?
The seventh and monumental final season of Scandal will premiere with a brand new White House administration that includes Mellie Grant as the first female President of the United States, Cyrus Beane as the vice president, and Olivia Pope as Mellie’s chief of staff. Olivia also doubles as the head of the newly reinstated top-secret government agency B6-13, with Jake Ballard working by her side. Will Mellie be successful in making her dreams come true? Will Olivia find love?
Discover a new cuisine every week on The Chefs’ Line – Season 1 – 9pm
Premiered in February, the Australian reality competitive cooking show, The Chefs’ Line pits passionate home chefs against professional chefs. Featuring a new cuisine every week, the show is a visual delight for all the foodies out there. The coming weeks will witness the chefs try their skills at Lebanese, Thai, Spanish, French, Japanese and Mexican food! Remains to be seen who will win the hearts of the judges, Dan Hong, Melissa Leong and Mark Olive with their culinary skills. Which side are you on?
Will & Grace – Season 1 – 8pm
How they became the most fabulous foursome on TV
Find out how it all started as Zee Café brings back the Emmy-winning show, Will & Grace, with the most fabulous foursome on television – Eric McCormack, Debra Messing, Sean Hayes and Megan Mullally reprising their famous roles as Will, Grace, Jack and Karen. The first season begins when Grace gets an unexpected marriage proposal and her best friend Will deals with his own feelings about her proposal.
Two and a Half Men – Season 7 – 11.55 pm
Charlie Sheen and his new live-in fiancée!
Television’s top-rated comedy is growing up and Zee Café brings it to you totally uncut and uncensored! Charlie Sheen as a veteran bachelor may finally be reined in by his new live-in fiancée. On the seventh season premiere, Charlie must decide between his fiancée, Chelsea, and his old flame, Mia. Rock superstar Eddie Van Halen makes a cameo appearance as himself. Charlie discovers that Chelsea hasn’t been completely honest about her finances. What happens next?
Everybody Loves Raymond – Season 6 – 8.30pm
The sixth season begins with first-grader Michael as he shocks the Barone clan with an unpleasant story he wrote about them. Ray tries to liven things up in the bedroom when he buys a sex game but, of course, the whole family finds out about it. Debra’s divorced parents come for Thanksgiving dinner, and her dad brings his new girlfriend, which shocks everyone. Robert gets involved with a woman he meets at a sports bar, but she thinks he is Ray Barone, the sportswriter, and Robert is afraid to tell her the truth.
The Big Bang Theory – Season 11 – Sunday, 7.30pm (Along with the US)
Season 11 begins with Amy giving Sheldon an answer to his marriage proposal. Meanwhile, Howard and Bernadette struggle with some unexpected news. Leonard and Wolowitz are furious after they learn Sheldon went to work with the military behind their backs. Also, while Bernadette is on bed rest, she asks Raj to do some digging when she suspects Ruchi is trying to steal her job. Sheldon and Amy try to eliminate stress from wedding planning by applying math to the process. Also, Koothrappali breaks up with Wolowitz after realizing his best friend is damaging his confidence.
The Late Late Show with James Corden– 11pm
Each week night, The Late Late Show with James Corden throws a late-night after-party with a mix of celebrity guests, edgy musical acts, games and sketches. Corden differentiates his show by offering viewers a peek behind the scenes into the green room, bringing all his guests out at once and lending his musical and acting talents to various sketches. Additionally, bandleader Reggie Watts and the house band provide original, improvised music throughout the show.
What’s more? Viewers don’t have to wait for their favourite shows to come to India as Zee Café brings them Along with the US. While The Big Bang Theory Season 11 is already being premiered with the US, shows like Supergirl Season 3, Lethal Weapon Season 2, Gotham Season 4 and Valor Season 1 will also be showed as a part of the property!
The channel will also air other shows like Fameless, Melissa & Joey, Criminal Minds, Originals and much more. With its unmissable content offerings, Zee Café promises to make this April an interesting one. Happy binging!
English Entertainment
Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders approve Paramount deal
Investors wave through a $111 billion megamerger but deliver a stinging, if toothless, rebuke over half-a-billion-dollar goodbye packages
NEW YORK: The shareholders said yes to the deal. They said no to the cheque. At a virtual special meeting on Thursday that lasted barely ten minutes, Warner Bros. Discovery investors voted overwhelmingly to approve Paramount Skydance’s $111 billion acquisition of the company — and then turned around and voted against the lavish exit pay packages lined up for chief executive David Zaslav and his fellow outgoing executives.
Not that it will make much difference. The compensation vote is purely advisory and non-binding. The Warner Bros. Discovery board can, and almost certainly will, pay out as planned.
But the symbolism stings. It is the second consecutive year that WBD shareholders have voted against the executive compensation packages, and this time they had good reason. Zaslav’s exit deal is, by any measure, extraordinary. Under the terms filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, he is set to receive $34.2 million in cash severance, $517.2 million in equity in the combined company, and $44,195 in continued health coverage — a total of at least $550 million. On top of that, Warner Bros. Discovery has agreed to reimburse Zaslav up to $335 million for taxes assessed by the Internal Revenue Service on his accelerated stock vesting, though the company says that figure will decline depending on when the deal closes. As of March 11, Zaslav also held $115.85 million in vested WBD stock awards — and last month sold a further $114 million worth of WBD shares.
Shareholder advisory firm ISS recommended voting against the compensation measure, citing “problematic” tax reimbursements to Zaslav and the full vesting of his stock awards.
Zaslav will be bound by a two-year non-competition covenant and a two-year non-solicitation of customers and employees after the deal closes.
His lieutenants are not walking away empty-handed either. J.B. Perrette, chief executive and president of global streaming and games, is in line for $142 million, comprising $18.2 million in cash severance and $123.9 million in equity. Bruce Campbell, chief revenue and strategy officer, will receive an estimated $121.5 million, including $18.8 million in severance and $102.7 million in equity. Chief financial officer Gunnar Wiedenfels is set for $120 million, made up of $6.6 million in cash severance and $113.1 million in equity. Gerhard Zeiler, president of international, will get $82.6 million, including $11.9 million in severance and $70.7 million in equity.
The deal itself, clinched in February after Netflix declined to raise its bid for Warner Bros., still needs regulatory clearance from the Justice Department and European authorities. Several state attorneys general are also weighing legal action to block it.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, was unsparing. “The Paramount-Warner Bros. merger isn’t a done deal,” she said after the shareholder vote. “State attorneys general across the country are stepping up to stop this antitrust disaster. We need to keep up this fight.”
If it does go through, the combined entity would be a formidable beast, bringing together Paramount Skydance’s stable — CBS, CBS News, Paramount Pictures, Paramount+, BET, MTV and Nickelodeon — with WBD’s portfolio of HBO, Max, Warner Bros. film and TV studios, DC, CNN, TBS, TNT, HGTV and Discovery+. Paramount has said it expects $6 billion in cost savings from the merger, which is Wall Street shorthand for mass layoffs on a significant scale.
The ten-minute meeting was presided over by chairman Samuel Di Piazza Jr., with Zaslav, Campbell, Wiedenfels and chief communications officer Robert Gibbs in virtual attendance. Di Piazza was bullish. “We appreciate the support and confidence our stockholders have placed in us to unlock the full value of our world-class entertainment portfolio,” he said. “With Paramount, we look forward to creating an exceptional combined company that will expand consumer choice and benefit the global creative talent community.”
Zaslav echoed the sentiment. “Over the past four years, our teams have transformed Warner Bros. Discovery and returned the company to industry leadership,” he said. “Today’s stockholder approval is another key milestone toward completing this historic transaction that will deliver exceptional value to our stockholders.”
Paramount Skydance struck a similar note. “Shareholder approval marks another important milestone towards completing our acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery,” it said in a statement, adding that it looked forward to “closing the transaction in the coming months.”
The shareholders have spoken on the merger. On the pay, they were ignored before the vote was even counted.
